Northwesterners Assist With Hurricane Cleanup During ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ Episode

By Valarie Case
Published in the Northwestern News on 3/30/06 & Alva-Review Courier on 4/4/06

Viewers of the ABC-TV program “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” soon may be able to catch a glimpse of a few people with Northwestern Oklahoma State University ties.

On Thursday, March 30, at 7 p.m. (CST), the second of four special Thursday “After the Storm” programs will air dealing with the renovation of locations destroyed by recent hurricanes in Mississippi, Florida, New Orleans and Texas.

Matt Bixler, Alva area native and owner of American Iron Sports (AIS) of Tonkawa, his wife Braxie (Ashpaugh) and friend Tige West, 2004 and 2003 Northwestern graduates, respectively, reconstructed three outdoor batting cages at the Boynton Beach, Fla., baseball complex in early February. Aaron Judd, AIS employee from Cherokee, also was a part of the local team that helped.
Thursday’s program will focus on the 12 and under field at the baseball complex, showing not only the batting cage renovation, but all aspects of a field renovation including the placement of a “Casey at the Bat” statue. It also will have segments showing renovation to a women’s shelter in Broward County, Fla., and a couple whose wedding plans were washed away twice, by Hurricanes Wilma and Katrina, having a dream wedding.

As a part of the baseball complex renovation, AIS’ responsibilities involved installing the batting cages, artificial turf, cage netting and pitching machines for a Little League Baseball team that had won the World Series Championship in 2003.

AIS, a company originally housed in Northwestern’s Business Incubator, was contacted by ABC officials in January to see if it was interested in helping.

Another company who uses AIS to install products at various complexes across the United States referred the company to ABC.

Hurricane Wilma hit Boynton Beach, which is just north of Miami, on Oct. 24, 2005, causing widespread damage to homes, businesses and the team’s field. It caused 500 boys to do without the sport and facility for much of the fall season.

A local ABC affiliate interviewed Bixler about AIS’ part of the project, and some history about his company and the services it provides. AIS has made a few sales because of the people and businesses Bixler became acquainted with while in Florida.

Although the company is based in Tonkawa, it has become a coast to coast operation. AIS has a crew that travels with a truck and a trailer installing turf fields, soccer fields, lighting, chain link fences, scoreboards and even basketball courts, and currently is expanding to have two full-time crews on the ground for installation.

The business will only continue to grow as the E-commerce portion takes off. The web site, www.americanironsports.com, is being updated with shopping cart capabilities and is set to change over in early April following the airing of the ABC program. The web site is being designed by 2002 Northwestern e-commerce graduate Tisha (Parks) West, wife of Tige.

Tisha began working fulltime at AIS in February, helping Bixler with his everyday office responsibilities while he is on the road, along with revamping the web site.

Tisha said that the web site would consist of a fully functional e-commerce shopping cart that will feature close to 1,000 products of sporting equipment. The customer can create a login where they can see items they have purchased in the past and even create a wish list.

When the call came in to do the project in Florida, AIS already had its crew busy with a job in Texas. Knowing that, Tige volunteered his services to help.

Tige and Braxie both took vacation days from work to join Matt and Aaron in Florida for the four-day project. Tige works at CableOne in Ponca City and Braxie is a pre-kindergarten teacher with Tonkawa Public Schools.

Tige’s recollection of the baseball park upon seeing it for the first time was a scene of mass destruction.

“There were 12-inch thick palm trees bent over, fences down everywhere, and it looked like a ravished park that had been looted and left for a baseball field gravesite,” Tige said. “Then slowly, as the days grew longer, we started to see life coming to the fields. New lights, fences, sidewalks, bleachers, concession stands, all starting to take on some character. Our cages seemed to be an attention grabber that many would come to see the progress. I remember by the time we were finished, the park appeared as if it was a newly built area that would make any baseball player or coach enthused to be a part of.”

Even though the AIS crew was unable to stay long enough to witness the big reveal to the community because their flight home was scheduled that morning, they did get a little of that emotional feeling from members of the community as work was being completed.

“At times, people who either coached at those fields, the umpires who worked at the field for years or just parents who have been driving to that field daily for their kids, came in and from a distance, just stared at the cages and the whole park in disbelief,” Tige said. “How one day it was rubbish, and three days later it was already taking shape to be a dream park come true is remarkable.”